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The Discovery Programme’s mission is to explore Ireland’s past and its cultural heritage by conducting advanced research in Irish archaeology and related disciplines and by disseminating its findings widely to the global community.

Ireland’s archaeological and cultural heritage represents many aspects of Irish identity. Every townland and parish in Ireland is made up of a tapestry of archaeological monuments, landscapes, settlements and place names.

The people of these townlands and parishes retain the island’s history in their personal names, surnames, relationships and oral memories. Throughout the world, libraries and museums hold artefacts, books, manuscripts and maps of cultural significance to Ireland’s past. Since the seventeenth century scholars have delved into this past and saved it from destruction. Despite the efforts of countless great scholars, much about our past remains unexplored an hidden away.

It is the mission of the Centre for Irish Archaeological Research (aka The Discovery Programme Company Ltd.) to continue this scholarly research using the most modern tools available to us. This research is not just the concern of a small community of archaeologists and historians. It requires the wider community to participate and to support our work. Communities can become the custodians of their own landscapes. They can see archaeology reveal the story of earlier communities who left imprints in their landscapes.